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Two college wrestlers who were hunting with their teammates in Wyoming were attacked and wounded in a ‘surprise’ attack by a grizzly bear over the weekend.
Both men were transported to local hospitals, one of them by helicopter, following the Saturday afternoon encounter which left them ‘blood-soaked,’ the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said in a written statement.
‘Based on the initial information, this appears to be a sudden, surprise encounter with a grizzly bear,’ the department said.
Kendell Cummings of Evanston and Brady Lowry of Cedar City, Utah were hunting and enjoying the outdoors together with teammates August Harrison and Orrin Jackson in the Shoshone National Forest, south of Cody, when the bear pounced on them.
Kendall Cummings, right, jumped on a grizzly bear in an attempt to pull it off his friend, Brady Lowry
Kendall Cummings was left with blood-soaked injuried. He received 60 staples in his head and plastic surgery to address major lacerations to his face. He had major lacerations to his left arm and leg that doctors had to suture up, together with stitches on his right hand and right leg
The pair had just spotted feces from what they thought was a bear when the attack occurred.
‘Before you could even think or blink, there’s a bear that came running out of the trees right in front of me,’ said Lowry to Fox News. ‘It was beating me up pretty good.’
Lowry ended up with a broken arm which needed six screws and bolts to repair. The bear also bit him in his right thigh. He curled up into a ball during the attack.
Cummings then yelled. The bear charged at him, immediately knocking him to the ground.
Cummings even grabbed the bear by its ear before he too was chased by the grizzly and injured before he could pull out his bear spray.
‘I grabbed and yanked him hard,’ he explained.
‘I could hear when his teeth would hit my skull, I could feel when he’d bite down on my bones and they’d kind of crunch,’ he told Cowboy State Daily.
Brady Lowry of Cedar City, Utah is seen sitting in his hospital bed in Montana with his father, Dallas Lowry
Two members of the Northwest College Wrestling Team, Kendell Cummings, left, and Brady Lowry, were mauled by a grizzly bear while hiking on the South Fork in Wyoming
‘I called out to Lowry to make sure he was alright and I think the bear heard me,’ Cummings said. ‘It kind of circled around and got me again.’
Once the bear stopped attacking, Cummings lay still to avoid attracting further attention.
Lowry managed to call 911 and called their teammates Harrison and Jackson for help.
‘He was just drenched in blood coming down the hill everywhere,’ Harrison said. ‘Me and Jackson took turns carrying him down to the bottom where the field was.’
The pair were both taken to hospital with Cummings air-lifted while an ambulance took Lowry to a trauma center in Billings, Montana.
Both will recover but will not be wrestling any time soon.
Lowry says Cummings saved his life.
‘I can’t even express how grateful I am for him,’ Lowry said. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to pay him back, I don’t. I owe him everything.
Brady Lowry and his friend were out hiking and hunting for antlers, as they had done many times before
Kendell Cummings, pictured here, is an experienced hiker and hunter when a bear attack caught them by surprise
‘There’s real serious puncture holes and wounds. He took a lot of staples to his head and also (there’s) some cosmetic surgery for his cheek,’ wrestling coach Jim Zeigler said said. ‘Neither one of them are going to be wrestling for a while.’
Cummings received 60 staples in his head and plastic surgery to address major lacerations to his face. He had major lacerations to his left arm and leg that doctors had to suture up, together with stitches on his right hand and right leg.
Lowry suffered a broken arm and lacerations to his back, shoulders, right leg and thigh.
‘For [Harrison and Jackson], there’s a lot of emotional trauma. I don’t think we can even begin to describe what went on there with them having to go and rescue a kid, bring him out and carry him out,’ Zeigler added of the rescuing pair.
Landowners and hunters in the region have reported a recent rise in bear activity at low elevations, prompting wildlife officials to caution that visitors use caution.
‘In the vicinity where the attack occurred, reports from landowners and hunters indicate there may be six to 10 different bears moving between agricultural fields and low elevation slopes,’ said Dan Smith, regional supervisor for the Wyoming Fish and Game Department.
‘This is a sad and unfortunate situation, we wish both victims a full and speedy recovery.’
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